Portfolio for supporting calendars in extended position



April 6, 1954 H. cs. LAIDLAW PORTFOLIO FOR SUPPORTING CALENDARS INEXTENDED POSITION 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Dec. 26, 1950 F l (5. 2,HowA'RD G.L AIDLAW Gttomeg April fi, 1954 H. G. LAIDLAW PORTFOLIO FORSUPPORTING CALENDARS IN EXTENDED POSITION 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Dec.26, 1950 lllllllll HI-H ILIIIIIIIIII runn- 4 lhmentor H OWARD G. LAIDLAW Gttorneg Patented Apr. 6, 1954 PORTFOLIO FOR SUPPORTING CALENDARSIN EXTENDED POSITION Howard G. Laidlaw, St. Paul, Minn, assignor toBrown -& Bigelow, St. Paul, Minn., a corporation of MinnesotaApplication December 26, 1950, Serial No. 202,732

1 Claim. 1,

My invention relates to an improvement in portfolios and moreparticularly to portfolios or the like employed for carrying variousarticles together with large sheet material separated and protectedtherefrom.

It is a primary object of my invention to provide a portfolio having azipper" closing means or the like and internal construction wherebylarge sheet material, virtually the length of the portfolio in an openfiat position, may be enclosed within the portfolio without having tosharply fold the same or have the large sheet material intermingled withother articles, the large sheet material being free of fold marks andfully protected beneath other articles placed in the portfolio.

To carry out the primary object of my invention I provide a centralsheet support member secured along one longitudinal side to the innerside of the portfolio with the opposite side edge detachably secured tothe opposite inner side of the portfolio. Large sheets may be laidbeneath the central member resting on the inner surface of the outercasing of the portfolio to carry the same, and in this position arounded large foldis made in the sheets carried when the sides of theportfolio are brought towards each other for closing the portfolio butwithout any permanent folds or creases being made in the sheet material.

It is a further object of my invention to provide pockets or enclosingmembers upon the top surface of the central sheet support member forholding articles separately and apart from sheet material placed underand held in position in the portfolio by the central support member.

The sheet material carried in my portfolio may be of a lengthsubstantially equal to that of the portfolio when opened and laid out ina fiat position.

It is an additional object of my invention to provide a central supportmember supported within a portfolio extending a substantial portionthereof and beneath which sheet material may be laid which extendsvirtually the length of the portfolio when in laid-out position.

The invention will appear more clearly from the following detaileddescription when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings,showing by way of example a preferred embodiment of the inventive idea.

In the drawings forming part of the application:

Figure l is a perspective view of my portfolio in closed position.

Figure 2 is a plan view of the inside of my portfolio in a flattenedposition.

Figure 3 is a section on the line 3--3 of Figure 1.

Figure 4 is a perspective view of the inside of my portfolio in aflattened position showing sheet material being removed therefrom.

My portfolio A consists of the side walls I0 and H which are connectedat the bottom ends thereof by the curved flexible portion l2. Secured tothe inner surface of the side walls 10 and H are the extension membersl3 and M respectively. The inner edges of the extension members 13 andI4 aresecured together by means of the zipper 15 when it is desired toclose the portfolio. I also provide handles 16 for carrying theportfolio.

I further provide a flexible central sheet retainer or support member I!which is secured along the longitudinal side edge of the portfolio as ati8 with the portfolio in a flattened position. The opposite side edge l9of the sheet retainer member I! is detach-ably secured to the innersurface of the side walls 10 and H by means of the snap fasteners 20.The longitudinal edge l9 of the retainer member I! may be secured alongthe entire edge similar to the securing as at [8 and sheet materialinserted under the retainer member I! by pushing the end of the sheetmaterial under either of the open ends under the retainer member H.

The central retainer member 11 has transverse edges connecting thelongitudinal side edges l8 and I9, and these transverse edges are spaceda substantial distance from the longitudinal end edges of the bodyportion of the portfolio to expose parts of the underlying calendars.

The central retainer member I! may have formed thereon the transversepockets 2| which in turn may have the pockets 22 formed on the upperouter surface thereof. The pockets 2| and 22 are adapted to carryvarious size, flat or threedimensional articles.

My device provides storage space as at 23 which space is beneath theretainer member l1, said storage space 23 is particularly shown inFigures 3 and 4.

In using my portfolio A, the same is laid out in the position shown inFigure 4, and the retainer member I1 is lifted as shown in Figure 4after the fasteners 20 have been unfastened which allows a large sheetmember such as the calendar B to be inserted beneath the retainer memberI1 for carrying or taken from beneath the same and removed from theportfolio A. Smaller calendars such as C may also be carried beneath theretainer member I! as illustrated in Figure 4. After the large sheetmember, such as B, is inserted under the retainer member 11, thefasteners 20 are fastened and the portfolio A may be closed by means ofthe zipper I so that the sheet calendar B assumes the position shown inFigure 3 wherein it will be seen that the calendar B has a relativelylarge fold 24 formed therein which fold does not permanently fold orcrease the sheet calendar 13 due to the large curvature of the fold. Itthus appears that with my portfolio A, sheet calendars such as B whichare virtually the length of the portfolio in laid-out position may beneatly carried therein without folding the same, and which are fullyprotected from the articles placed in or out of pockets formed withinthe portfolio A. Heretofore large flat portfolios have been employed tocarry large sheet material without folding, or the same have been foldedand placed in smaller portfolios.

The central sheet retainer I1 is secured along its longitudinal sideedge as at 18 by means of the stitching 18', the edge of the member I!being positioned beneath the extension portions l3 and M. The stitchingl8 goes through the extension members I 3 and I4 and the outer edge ofthe elongated pockets 2|, together with the edge of the sheet member I"!and on through the side members In and II. In addition the stitching l8"secures the central retainer member I! where it is positioned around thezipper closing member 25. Thus, the sheet retainer member 17 togetherwith the pocket 2! is simply fastened by means of the single stitchingi8 and 18''.

The invention is not to be understood as restricted to the details setforth since these may be modified within the scope of the appended claimwithout departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

Having thus described the invention, what I claim as new. and desire tosecure by Letters Patent is:

A portfolio for supporting and carrying a series of calendars one uponthe other to lie in a. compact flat state therein, a substantially rec,-

tangular one-piece, flat body portion formed with parallel longitudinalside and end edges, said edges being provided with extension membersalong their periphery, said portfolio being adapted to extend out in aflat state when the portfolio is opened, a. slid fastener secured aroundthe extension members for closing said portfolio, said body portion whenfolded transversely and centrally thereof having its ends drawn up topresent a U-shaped formation, handles for carrying said portfolio, saidhandles being positioned at either end of the body portion when the sameis opened out flat, a flat, flexible calendar retaining member formedwith substantially parallel transverse edges and extending transverselyof said body, said flexible calendar retaining member having saidsubstantially parallel transverse edges spaced from said end edges ofthe body portion, said flat flexible calendar retaining member havinglongitudinal side edges connected by said transverse edges, onelongitudinal side edge thereof being permanently secured to the innersurface of said body portion along one of said longitudinal side edgesof said body portion, the opposite longitudinal side edge of saidcalendar retaining member being detachably secured along the other ofsaid longitudinal side edges to the inner surface of said both! portionto permit calendars to be inserted under said member or removedtherefrom, said fiat calendar retaining member being of a width which isless than the length of said body portion, whereby oalendars supportedby said portfolio may normally xtend beyond each of the transverse edgesof said calendar retaining member to expose substantial portionsthereof.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS NumberName Date 830,396 Winter Sept. 4, 1906 1,266,091 Basch May 14, 19181,914,087 Gilmore June 13, 1933 2,011,879 Stein Aug. 20, 1935 2,053,630'Plotkin Sept. 8, 1936 2,086,895 Cart July 13, 1937 2,261,291 SalavskyNov. 4, 1941

